Archives: Food allergies

Every wonder if behavior is somehow tied to the foods we eat? Of course it is, especially food allergies. When you hear food allergies you think “he ate a peanut and now he looks like Violet from Willy Wonka, his breathing is getting worse, and he is covered in hives.” Yes, food allergies cause severe reactions like this but they also can have much less noticeably reactions as well.

Food allergies may be to blame for your behavior, which in return affects your mental health as well. Food allergies can cause anything from anxiety, depression, and irritability to waking up numerous times throughout the night, being a non-stop talker, having problems paying attention (ADD), and hyperactivity. You may wonder well how do I know if a food allergy is to blame for my depression or excessive talking. Most food allergies will cause more than just a behavioral symptom(s). The majority of the time, behavioral symptoms will be accompanied by a runny nose, eczema, digestion problems, etc.

As you know there are certain foods that are continuously considered ‘high risk’ due to their reputation of being top allergy causers among both children and adults. These foods include: peanuts (or nuts in general), eggs, wheat, soy, milk, and shellfish. Children in particular face allergy problems associated with behavioral problems quite frequently, especially with gluten (wheat). Gluten allergies have become more and more popular of the past few years so there are a larger variety of gluten-free options out there today. However, if you are unaware that gluten is the culprit then it’s a whole new story.

Next time your child, yourself, or your husband/wife has a mood swing out of the blue think back to what they have recently ate. Keep a food journal for a few days if you have to. If you continue to see or a notice a pattern try to cut what you think is the culprit out of the diet and see what happens! You’ll be surprised at what you find. You may need to cut a few different things (at different times) out of the diet in order to find the culprit or culprits.

Ever know someone who LOVES to eat a certain food, for its health benefits? Yeah me too, until I started to personally notice a change in their mood and their eczema getting way out of control. I decided to mention, “Well maybe you are allergic to this or maybe you just have an intolerance to it, you should cut it out of your diet and see what happens.” Long be hold not even three days later the eczema had cleared up and their mood had made a 180 turn. Now they are of course sad because their go to food has been causing all these problems but not only is everyone around them happier they are also happier (mood wise) as well.

Who knew food could be such WIN-LOSE/LOVE-HATE. Some of the most nutritional and energy boosting foods also are(could be?) some of the most harmful foods as well. Do you have any food allergy/behavioral stories you would like to share with us?!